Fat Women Who Face Breast Cancer More Aggressive

Women with breast cancer face a more aggressive disease and the survival rates lower if they are overweight or obese, according to findings published in Clinical Cancer Research.

"The more obese the patient, the more aggressive the disease," said Massimo Cristofanilli, assistant professor of medicine at the University of Texas Anderson Cancer Center. "We know that fat tissue may increase inflammation that makes the disease become more aggressive."

Cristofanilli and colleagues studied 606 women who had breast cancer locally high levels. Women were classified according to body mass index into three groups: normal or underweight, overweight and obesity.

For five years, overall survival was 56.8% among obese women, 56.3% among overweight women and 67.4% among women with normal body is.

Figures 10-year survival was 42.7% among women with overweight, 41.8% among women fat and 56.5% among normal-bodied women.


Numbers with inflammatory breast cancer, which previously appeared to have a worse outcome compared with no inflammatory breast cancer, among obese women was 45% compared with fat women, 30%, and only 15% in women who are considered to have a normal body, so the researchers found.

Risk of breast cancer recurrence was also higher in women fat or very fat. "Obesity is much bigger than just how someone looks or physical strain due to carrying excessive weight," said Cristofanilli.

Cristofanilli said doctors need to give very careful attention to breast cancer patients because commonly used drugs such as tamoxifen, tend to increase weight gain during treatment.